Ashes to Ashes
by Sparky75
Summary: When Malcolm suddenly has to drop out of a day at The Oval with Harry for the Fifth Ashes Test, someone else has to step in to replace him. Set sometime mid series 5 - Harry and Ruth with sizeable cameo's from Malcolm, Zaf, Adam and Wes. Epilogue now added.
1. Chapter 1

This started out as a light-hearted one-shot to marry my love of Spooks with my love of cricket. Given the Ashes only likely has a day left to play (I had the idea for this during the first test at Cardiff) I wanted to get at least the start up while the Ashes series was still underway... despite the series being won at Trent Bridge (oh Stuart Broad and Joe Root I bow down before you). No love or understanding of cricket is needed to read this, but for anyone not aware, The Ashes is a series of 5 Test matches with each Test Match lasting up to 5 days held every other year between England and Australia and is the marquee series for both teams, with the small trophy of an urn being fiercely contested. Anyway, that's enough from me, I hope you enjoy reading and any thoughts/reviews will be gratefully received and I hope to have part two up next weekend.

XXXXX

"Blast and botheration?"

Ruth looked up slightly bemused at the unlikely outburst from Malcolm, the only other person still in the main part of the office at that time of night. "Sorry?"

Malcolm looked up from his screen, "I'm sorry Ruth, I didn't mean to interrupt you."

Ruth sighed heavily, "you're not really interrupting anything," she said with a look of disgust at her computer. They were working their way through a facial recognition programme, trying to track down two suspected terrorists who allegedly had entered the UK illegally through Felixstowe in the back of a lorry a couple of days previously. It was the type of thing that if it was in a film or TV show would be solved in mere seconds, while in reality it had so far taken 6 hours of her time and even with Malcolm taking a batch, she expected to be here for another hour or so. "What's wrong?"

"I've just had an email come through from my Great Aunt," he said, slowly shaking his head to and fro in a disappointed manner.

Ruth's eyebrows lifted in surprise."Your Great Aunt emails?" She asked curiously, from what she'd heard of Malcolm's Great Aunt in the past, she was 80 if she was a day.

"Yes, she was one of the original 'silver surfers'." Malcolm explained, "she jumped on board in the late nineties and hasn't looked back."

"So what did she want that caused that reaction from you?" Ruth said good humouredly, "help on how to hack into the SAGA database?"

"Very droll," Malcolm replied, "No, I've been trying to arrange a weekend to take my Mum up for a visit, she lives in North Lincolnshire you see so we'd need to go for a couple of days to make it worthwhile, but the weekend she's suggested is the one before the bank holiday weekend in August."

"And what's wrong with that?"

"It's the one weekend I had firm plans for, Harry and I have tickets for the fourth day of the Fifth Test at the Oval." He looked morose, "we bought them months ago."

"Cricket? Is that all?" Ruth was aware that the games were going on, how could she not be, but it hadn't really permeated her psyche.

"Is that all?" Malcolm said agitatedly, "is that all," he repeated. "This will be the decider, the crunch match. Whoever wins this, wins the Ashes. With the series balanced at two games a piece, it's all to play for."

"Oh," said Ruth quietly, feeling she was missing exactly why Malcolm was getting quite so worked up about it all.

"Oh indeed," Malcolm thumped a pile of papers down on his desk, "what a waste of money and I was so looking forward to it."

"Isn't there someone else who could take your mum up there? Or can't she go some other time."

"I wish it was that easy," Malcolm answered, having seemingly calmed down slightly. "I've been trying to plan this excursion for a while, Great Aunt Violet has a hectic social life and it's only due to a friend of hers having to have an emergency hip replacement that she's free at such short notice. It'd be selfish for me to stand in the way."

"That's as maybe, but surely there's someone else who could take her up there?"

Malcolm looked aghast at the suggestion though not for the reasons Ruth first thought. "I couldn't inflict mother on anyone else," he confessed as he smiled wryly, "she's an absolutely awful back seat driver. She's only just been allowed back on the over sixties coach trips after being given a 'cooling off period' for harassing the driver... plus she now has to sit at the back of the bus!"

Ruth laughed, "so Harry will just have to go with someone else, I'm sure he won't mind."

"Hmmm," Malcolm replied, the cogs in his brain obviously whirring for a minute or two, before he turned to her with a sparkle in his eye. "What about you?"

"What about me?" Ruth had turned back to her computer to check on the progression of their search and her mind had already half moved on from their conversation.

"Why don't you go with Harry to the cricket?" he answered, with a big smile on his face.

"Me?... Oh no," Ruth countered quickly when she saw his expression, "stop doing this Malcolm."

"Doing what?"

"Harry and I are colleagues, friends that's all." Ruth murmured, the colour in her cheeks starting to rise as she turned her head back to her computer to hide the blush she could feel taking over her neck and face. "I've told you this before."

"What?" Malcolm suddenly looked aghast, "oh no, that's not what I meant. I just thought you'd enjoy the day out, and lets face it, there aren't many people Harry could tolerate spending that amount of time with." He looked over at her as she refused to meet his gaze, "honestly Ruth," he added gently, "I didn't mean anything by it. I only mentioned you going because when you'd overheard me listening to Test Match Special a few weeks ago, you'd said that you'd enjoyed listening to it yourself in the past with your father."

"That was more the general conversations they'd have rather than the cricket." Ruth smiled at the memory, her father spending hours listening to the radio as England's cricket matches were broadcast from all over the world and him trying to explain the finer points of the game to her. "I never got caught up in all the runs and wickets, it was more the quiet times when not much was happening and they chatted about this and that that I loved the most." 'As well at the valuable time spent with her father, just the two of them,' she added quietly to herself.

"Well the offer still stands..."

Ruth shook her head, "no I'm sorry Malcolm, it's a lovely gesture, but I really don't think so."

She turned back to her work and that looked to be the end of the conversation with silence once again taking over the office. Malcolm sighed quietly to himself, it looked like he'd stepped right in it again with his size 9's, he really was going to have to work on being slightly more subtle. Ten minutes passed quietly with both of them staring at the screens on their respective desks before Ruth broke the silence, "Adam or Zaf may go with him," she said quietly, "they both enjoy cricket."

It took a moment for Malcolm to catch up, she'd obviously been mulling it over sine they'd ended the conversation. "They're both already going," he replied calmly, "they've seats in a different stand and they're taking Wes, apparently he loves the game and this will be the first time he's actually been to watch an international."

"Oh... well, what about Matthews or Clarke?" She said referring to the respective Heads of Sections A and E, "they're both fans I believe."

"Can you honestly imagine Harry spending any more time that he has to with either of those tow?" Malcolm laughed, "they're both so politically motivated that they'd probably only agree if they knew the DG was likely to be accompanying them!"

"There must be someone?"

"Ruth," Malcolm chided her softly, "don't worry about it. Harry will be more than fine with going along by himself, he's done it plenty of times before."

It was this that tipped Ruth over the edge; imagining him spending the day in a huge crowd all alone with no one to speak to, caused a lurch in her stomach which even she was afraid to put a name too. "If there really is no one else then I suppose I could go, as friends obviously," she muttered, half to herself and half to Malcolm.

"Obviously." Malcolm smiled and mirrored her response back to her. Seeing the look of slight panic on her face, he added quickly, "and I won't mention this to a soul Ruth, not that there's anything to really say anyway." He mimicked pulling a zip across his lips, "mums the word."

Ruth suddenly looked at him, suspicion writ across her face "do you promise that this really isn't some silly kind of set up?"

"Ruth what do you take me for?" Malcolm sighed sadly, "these tickets aren't cheap by any stretch of the imagination and given the current state of the series, tickets will be like gold dust. I really wouldn't be that generous." He added, "If there was anyway at all that I could go, then I would be, I guess I'll have to settle for listening to it on Radio 4 instead."

Convinced of his sincerity, Ruth looked over at him. "Well you must at least let me pay you for the ticket."

Malcolm was already shaking his head, "Ruth you're doing me a favour, I'd have felt awful telling Harry that he had to go alone, so the ticket's on me. Just get me a copy of the match programme and we'll call it evens."

Ruth nodded, "thankyou," she said quietly as she turned back to her screen with a small smile on her face which Malcolm couldn't fail to miss.

XXXX

"Bad news I'm afraid." Malcolm said, popping his head around Harry's office door, while knocking at the same time, the day after his conversation with Ruth.

"Oh God, what is it this time?" Harry thundered, he'd just returned from a Heads of Department meeting and had another meeting with the Home Secretary coming up within the hour. More bad news was something he really didn't feel able to face at this precise moment. He looked over to his decanter pointedly, it really was far too early in the day to be thinking about having a drink just yet, but by jove, he needed one.

"The cricket next Sunday," Malcolm paused as Harry looked up at him, "I'm afraid I'm not going to be able to make it, I've got to take my mother up to Lincolnshire, somethings just popped up and we can't get out of going."

Harry sighed heavily, that had been the one bright spot on his horizon, it really did seem that someone upstairs had it in for him. "Fine, fine... thanks for letting me know Malcolm." He rubbed his hand over his forehead in disappointment. "Maybe I shouldn't go as well, it'll be easier to get rid of two tickets rather than just the one and I don't know that I fancy it by myself..." That whisky really was becoming more and more tempting by the minute.

"No need old chap," Malcolm said breezily, "I've already given the ticket to someone, I'm sure you'll enjoy the company."

Harry's chin slumped into his chest, he feared his idea and Malcolm's idea of a person to spend time with watching cricket outside of work could differ massively. "Who is it?" He asked weakly, half not wanting to hear the answer.

"Ruth," was Malcolm's cheery response as Harry's head jerked back in surprise.

"Ruth?" Harry's mouth opened and closed a couple of times without him actually saying anything, "does she realise she going with me?" He eventually managed to spit out.

Malcolm nodded with a wry smile, "she does indeed. I'll let the two of you make the arrangements of where and when to meet up," he said, as he slowly backed out of the door.

"But we've hardly spoken about anything but work since we went out to dinner a few weeks ago." Harry said in bemusement, giving away a lot more than he normally would in the circumstances, even to a friend like Malcolm , such was his surprise.

"Turns out Ruth's got a bit of a soft spot for cricket," Malcolm said, "and you," he added a lot more softly so that Harry wouldn't hear him.

"Sorry, what did you just say?" Harry looked up at him questioningly.

"Nothing." Malcolm went to close the door, leaving Harry to prepare for his meeting, but added just as the door closed with a wink of the eye that Harry only just caught, "don't say I never do anything for you."

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks for all the lovely response and reviews to the first chapter, it's always nice to know that people are reading and enjoying it. Any further feedback to this chapter will be equally appreciated. This was initially going to be a one-shot that then turned into a two-shot. It now looks like they'll be at least another couple of chapters so hopefully you'll enjoy and feel it's not too drawn-out.

* * *

Harry waited patiently at the entrance to the ground as crowds of people thronged past him, all in a good mood, each wanting to be at their seat before the first ball of the day was bowled . He had offered to pick Ruth up on his way in but she had declined, preferring instead to make her own way there. He glanced at his watch again for the third time that morning, they had arranged to meet at 10.15am giving them plenty of time to get in, get themselves sorted and find their seats. It was now 9.45am; Harry cursed himself once more for turning up quite so early, he just hadn't wanted Ruth to get there first and being unable to find him, turning round and going back home again.

He hadn't felt this nervous waiting for someone since he had been 14 years old and waiting outside the Flicks for Sarah Greene, who had agreed to go and see the latest Bond film, _You Only Live Twice_ with him; if only the life of a spy was half as glamorous as Sean Connery had made it out to be, he mused to himself. She'd eventually shown up, eaten all his sweets and then dumped him a week later for a boy in the year above him at school... At least that wasn't going to happen this time, as Ruth had made it perfectly clear, in their one brief conversation about today, that whatever it was, it wasn't a date. It had been nearly a week after Malcolm had told him that Ruth, rather than Malcolm himself would be joining him at The Oval, yet Ruth hadn't so much as said a word to him about it until Friday evening when she'd burst into his office unannounced just before 7.00pm and asked him where they should meet on Sunday. If he hadn't known better, judging by the expression on her face and the slight tremor in her voice, he'd have thought that she'd been working her way up to speaking to him about it all day, though he was no better himself, having had absolutely no idea how to broach the conversation with her without risking others overhearing or 'spooking her'. In fact he'd been halfway through an email to her, which had been sitting in his drafts for two days when she'd rendered the email mute.

He was brought out of his thoughts by a clear shout of recognition, "Harry!" Unfortunately it wasn't the person he was waiting for and the initial shout was followed up by another, not quite as deep, "Uncle Harry." He groaned inwardly while simultaneously looking up and smiling briefly at the man and boy approaching him, mirrors of each other dressed in shorts, tee-shirts and trainers, hoping against all hope that Ruth didn't show up now and spot Adam and Wes with him. What were the chances of bumping into each other with the thousands of people here today.

"Fancy seeing you here!" Adam spoke with a cheeky grin on his face, "waiting for someone?"

He was saved from answering by Wes piping up, "are you coming to watch the cricket with us Uncle Harry? It's my first time."

He smiled down at the earnest face below him, "not this time Wes, I'm going with another friend, we'll have to go to another game sometime."

Wes nodded eagerly, while Adam continued to smile at Harry, "whereabouts are your seats Harry? Maybe we'll be sat close together."

Fortunately Malcolm, on behalf of Harry had already checked this out, the thought of Ruth bumping into a likely tipsy Zaf and Adam and a very curious, no holds barred on the questions Wes, likely egged on by Zaf, had not been at the top of his wish list for today. Thankfully they were at opposite ends of the ground. He answered confidently and noncommittally, giving as little away as possible, "we're at the Vauxhall End."

Adam's face fell slightly, "shame, we're more at The Pavilion end I think, in the Lock Stand."

"That is a shame." Harry said with a straight face, his tone giving away though that he though it was anything but a shame. He ruffled Wes's hair as he spoke pointedly to Adam, "mustn't keep you anyway, you'll be wanting to get to your entry gate and with these crowds it's likely to take a while to get there." Quite how Adam seemed to suddenly know that Harry wasn't waiting for a male friend, he had no idea, he certainly hadn't mentioned it to anyone and after last time, he couldn't imagine either Malcolm or Ruth saying anything either; or maybe he was just becoming overzealous in his old age and imagining things that weren't there.

Adam grinned again, "well enjoy your day," he looked up at the sky, which for once in England was cloudless, "it looks like it's going to be a real scorcher."

Harry nodded, he was already feeing the heat and wishing he was 20 years younger, so that he too could get away with wearing shorts on a day out, if he'd been going with Malcolm he might has risked it, but he didn't think Ruth would have appreciated seeing his legs on display. "You too," he answered, "I'll see you tomorrow at work, when hopefully the Ashes will be back where they belong in the MCC museum."

Adam grinned cheerfully as they walked away, while Wes turned around and waved at him, he sighed as he heard Wes's question to his father float over to him, "who's Uncle Harry waiting for Dad?" Fortunately the answer was washed away in the babble of people walking past and he attempted to put all thoughts of Adam and anyone else out of his mind.

He checked his watch again before scanning the horizon, it was still another 15 minutes until Ruth was due when he spotted her carrying a large outsize bag and making her way slowly towards him.

"Ruth, what on earth have you brought with you?" He said rushing towards her in lieu of a greeting.

"Good morning to you too," she answered cheerfully, putting the bag down at her feet. "I checked their website yesterday and they said to bring extra clothes in case the weather changes," they both looked up at the sky which was still cloudless, " and I've brought some lunch for us both." She looked over at Harry where he stood in a pair of dark casual trousers and a light blue open necked shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his arms, "haven't you even brought a jumper in case it cools down later?."

He shrugged in response, before bending over to pick up her bag for her, "I'll taken my chance on the weather." He indicated towards the large bag now in his hand, "you didn't need to bring us lunch, I normally just buy food in the ground."

"Fried food of every description." Ruth wrinkled her nose in distaste, "no thank you."

He smiled at her expression, "well thank you for thinking of me too, I'm sure whatever you've brought along will be much nicer. In that case, the drinks today will be on me," he insisted. He'd always planned on treating her, but with her supplying their lunch it made it easier to implement this plan. Ushering her towards the gates and the queue to get the bag checked, he glanced down at her, she was wearing a blue sundress that came down to just below her knees, a thin cardigan over the top of it and a pair of sandals, "you look lovely," he blurted out before he could stop himself and then winced, this isn't a date, he repeated to himself inside his head.

Ruth however didn't seem to mind too much, she coloured slightly as they joined the back of the queue and a shy smile slipped onto her face, "thank you."

Harry grinned inwardly as he took the two tickets out of his pocket ready for them to be scanned at the entrance, maybe where Ruth was concerned his luck was finally changing.

* * *

"Uncle Zaf!" Wes charged towards the dark haired, good looking man who was leaning against a lamppost clearly waiting for them.

"Wes!" He held up his hand for a high-five, "good to see you! You looking forward to seeing some cricket?"

Wes nodded enthusiastically before reeling off a number of players that he was hoping to see today. Adam had bought him a miniature bat from one of the many official souvenir stands around the ground and he was hoping to be able to get a couple of autographs from the players if he was lucky.

"Shall we get the drinks in first or wait 'til we've found our seats?" Zaf asked Adam over the top of Wes' excited chatter once they'd made their way through into the ground.

"Beer first, I'm parched," Adam replied, "we went in the wrong direction when we arrived, so we've already circumnavigated most of the stadium"

Zaf chuckled as they headed over to one of the many drinks stands.

"We saw Uncle Harry," Wes piped up as they waited to be served, "he's not sitting with us though, he's with another friend today."

"Is he so?" Zaf's eyebrows lifted as he looked at the young boy, while Adam audibly groaned "which friend was he waiting for?"

"I don't know," Wes answered earnestly, "Dad thinks it's a special friend though."

A special friend?" Zaf smiled and suddenly looked like the cat who had got the cream.

Adam grimaced, as much as he'd enjoyed gently teasing Harry earlier, he certainly didn't want this going any further. It had only been pure chance that as he'd wandered past the back of Ruth's chair and glanced at her computer when she'd been distracted on the phone the other night, that he'd seen the tab open on her computer on the Guardian's cricket pages. It could be sheer coincidence of course, but Adam didn't believe in coincidences, not when he knew that Ruth generally didn't follow the cricket, and if Ruth was doing anything she didn't know much about, then she'd research it until she did. "I didn't say that exactly Wes," he bit out, "ignore him," he directed to Zaf.

"But you said it was a special friend, " Wes insisted, "that's what you said."

Adam pinched the bridge of his nose as they reached the front of the queue and were finally served, ordering beers for himself and Zaf and a soft-drink for Wes, "aren't all friends special," he asked Wes softly, while wondering how two dyed in the wool spies, such as he and Fiona, could have produced such an open and honest boy... it certainly didn't seem that Wes would be following them into the business and for that Adam could only feel thankful.

Wes fortunately seemed to be placated by Adam's answer as they made their way over to their seats, and anything he might have added was forgotten as he saw the pitch for the first time, "wow!" was all he heard from his son and he smiled at the joy in his voice.

Zaf, unfortunately, wasn't quite as keen to let it go. "So Harry's here with a female friend is he? I don't suppose that it's a female friend, quite short, dark haired, works alongside us?" He asked cheekily; he had a book open on Harry and Ruth, unbeknownst to either of them, and their relationship, or lack of it, had garnered a number of bets from Officers across Section D.

"I don't know who he's with Zaf, " Adam sighed, "just let it go. He's probably here with his old army mates, I only said special friend to stop Wes getting upset that he wasn't sitting with us."

Zaf looked at him with an expression that clearly said, 'do you think I was born yesterday', but dropped the questioning for the time being as they found their seats, had their first sips of beer and waited for the stirring sound of Jerusalem to resonate across the ground.

* * *

"Sorry, sorry." Harry made his way back to the seats, beers in hand, trying carefully and failing, not to stand on anyone's feet as he made his way through the narrow aisle and people stood up to let him through.

Ruth smiled in appreciation as he handed her a plastic glass of beer and she took a large gulp. He'd initially offered to buy her a wine, soft-drink or a cup of tea, but when she'd realised that he intended getting himself a beer she'd decided to join him.

"I never took you for a beer drinker," he stated as he watched her take her first mouthful as he settled down in the seat next too her.

"I'm not usually, but I do enjoy it on a hot day," she grinned, "I haven't really drunk it much since I left Oxford, but it was my drink of choice then on the occasions I went out." She nudged him, or at least he thought she did, they were sat so close together it was hard to know whether it was a nudge or if she'd just moved her arm, "you can hardly talk anyway, I don't think I've seen you drink beer before either."

"They didn't sell single malt at the bar," Harry joked. "I'm the same as you, I enjoy it on a hot day." He mopped his brow, "and today is certainly a hot day." It had just passed 11.00am, it was 25 degrees, the game had started and with Australia needing 350 runs to win and England 10 wickets, the Test was finely poised and was anyone's to win and anyone's to lose.

The stand they were sitting in was in the full glare of the sun and Ruth reached inside her bag to take out her suntan lotion while keeping one eye on the field; so far not much seemed to have happened, but she had enjoyed the gentle applause from the crowd as runs were scored and the louder ooh's and aah's when England bowled a good ball. Harry suddenly felt very thankful that Ruth had packed for all occasions, otherwise it was likely that he'd have burnt to a crisp, though he did have a floppy white hat tucked away in his trouser pocket should it get too bad. "Would you mind if I borrowed some of that Ruth?" he asked quietly.

"Of course," she said, taking some herself before passing the bottle over, "help yourself."

"Thanks," he started spreading it liberally over his face and arms, "I didn't even think about this before," he said slightly sheepishly.

"Harry," she exclaimed, slightly louder than she'd intended, "what was it Noel Coward said about mad dogs and Englishmen?"

"Don't worry love, my husband's just the same as yours!" Both Harry and Ruth looked up startled as the woman sat immediately in front of them turned round in her chair.

"I'm not..."

"He's not..."

Both of their comments were drowned out as the lady continued, indicating towards the man sat to her left who seemed to shrink slightly into his chair as she pointed towards him and three pairs of eyes came to rest on the lobster red skin on his arms and the back of his neck. "I told him yesterday when were in the garden that he needed to put some on, but would he listen to me, no he wouldn't and now he's a colour only a tomato would be jealous of. Still," she continued, talking to Ruth, "at least your other half has the sense to admit to it now, rather than expecting you to rub after-sun all over him when you get home." With that, she turned back round in her seat and her husbands neck appeared to have turned an even deeper shade of red if that was at all possible.

Harry and Ruth looked at each other, both with slightly nonplussed expressions on their faces and both with a touch of red that had nothing to do with the sun. Despite being surrounded by thousands of people it had felt like their own little space and although things had been a little awkward between them, they'd spent the first hour stumbling along well together. That had all changed with the unasked for interruption and presumption, but before either of them could say anything, the stadium erupted as England claimed the first wicket of the morning session.

TBC

NB. For those that don't follow cricket (which I presume is a large percentage of readers) Jerusalem is an unofficial national anthem for England and played (and sung) before each days play as the players make their way onto the pitch during an England Test match.


	3. Chapter 3

Thank you once again to everyone who has read and reviewed this story. It turns out that it's quite difficult for me trying to write a 'light-hearted' Spooks story, so the reviews and the comments on the previous chapters have really spurred me on to write more. And on that note, back to the Oval where Australia have just lost their first wicket.

* * *

"Only another nine wickets to go," Harry said, smiling broadly as they sat back in their seats, the discomfort they'd both felt from the intrusive comments from the person sat in front of them having dissipated in the excitement of the crowd. Even Ruth had cheered, though in all honesty, she had no real idea why, she had just been swept up in the wave of euphoria. As they made themselves comfortable once again, he noticed Ruth looking at him with a curious expression on her face. "What is it?" he asked.

"Nothing!" she said, though the expression remained.

"It's obviously something," he rubbed his face, "I haven't still got sun cream showing have I?"

She laughed softly, "no, it's not that... though you do have a little on your ear," before she could examine her actions too closely she leaned over and brushed the offending spot of sun screen with her finger.

Harry smiled inwardly as he looked down at his knees, "it's obviously something Ruth," he replied softly, "if it's not me looking like an halfwit with sun cream everywhere, then it's something else. You were looking at me as though I'd suddenly sprouted horns or something."

She laughed again, "I think I'd have looked aghast if you'd suddenly sprouted horns Harry. It wasn't that... it's just... " Ruth paused, wondering how best to say it

"Go on," he urged kindly.

"It's just that... well... well I've never seen you smile like that before." she blurted out in a rush, the words falling over each other.

Harry whipped his head round to look at her, while she immediately did the opposite, suddenly taking a special interest in the game going on in front of her. "What do you mean, you've never seen me smile before?" Harry asked, suddenly unsure of himself; he knew he wasn't the life and soul of the Grid, his job description saw to that, but surely she didn't see him as figure of constant doom and gloom. He was almost sure he had smiled at her several times when they'd gone out for dinner, in fact now he was thinking about it, he could list a number of times he'd smiled over the years. "I'm not that miserable to be around... am I?"

Ruth caught the slight catch in his voice as he asked the question, she was almost sure no one else would have heard it, but she'd become particularly tuned in to all things Harry, without even realising it over the past twelve months or so. "Not at all," she replied quickly, touching his arm briefly to get him to look at her, "and I didn't say I'd never seen you smile before."

"Oh," Harry was still focusing on the fleeting touch which had gone as seen as it came.

"You smile all the time really," Ruth continued, trying to get herself out of the small hole she'd managed to start digging for herself. How had one slight off look from her led to this conversation. "You smile when you come in in the morning and say hello... well you do most mornings anyway, you smile to yourself when you go back into your office after a particularly difficult person, usually the Home Secretary, Mace or Juliet has just left it. You smile when someone brings you in a cup of tea while you're working and when you've finally closed down an operation and signed off the last report, you always smile as you put the folder into your 'done' pile." Ruth had been so caught up in trying to explain, that she suddenly realised that once again she'd let her mouth run away with her thoughts and had revealed far more about her habit of watching Harry working than she'd ever intended.

"Well I'm glad I'm not just a figure of darkness frequenting the Grid," he said lightly, deciding quickly to avoid making any comments about what she had just inadvertently revealed to him... well at this stage anyway. "You had me thinking I'd have to start telling jokes first thing in the daily meetings."

Ruth giggled softly at his comments and was also hugely relieved that he wasn't going to push her on what she'd said. "What I meant to say in the first place, was that I'd never seen you quite so open before. Usually when you smile you're in control, but when England got that wicket , your face just lit up out of pure joy."

Harry coloured slightly at her words, "and was that a bad thing?" he asked hesitantly.

"No," Ruth replied softly, in for a penny, in for a pound she thought to herself, "it was nice to see the real man behind the mask you normally wear."

* * *

As the players walked off to loud applause for the lunch break Zaf stood up and stretched. "Well we've managed to get two of the Aussie's out this morning Wes, do you think we'll be able to get the others as well?"

Wes nodded eagerly, he'd had a great morning so far and had even managed to get a couple of the English fast bowlers to sign his bat by standing by the hoardings and waiting for them to come over while they'd been fielding deep in the covers. "We'll get them all out easy," he said, with the confidence only a young boy, untainted by the previous disasters of English cricket could have.

Adam laughed, "easy you think," he said clapping his hand on Wes's shoulder, "well if that's the case, we better go and get some food to sustain us for the afternoon. What do you fancy Wes, a salad sandwich or just salad?" he asked, with a wink at Zaf.

"Noooo, dad stop being silly" Wes said pleadingly.

"Well I suppose we can go and see if anyone is selling burgers and chips if salad doesn't take your fancy." Adam smiled as they made their way back to the concourse at the back of the stand where they could get their fill. "What about you Zaf, are you joining us for burger and chips?"

Zaf looked around, "I might just take a walk round the back of the ground first," he grinned at Adam, "you never know what you might discover at the other side of the stadium."

"Zaf," Adam said warningly, "don't go messing things up for them, you know how private they both are."

"I don't know what you mean!" Zaf replied innocently, "just fancy stretching my legs for 10 minutes or so, we're packed in like sardines in those seats. With that he strolled off with a jaunty wave to Wes and a "see you soon."

"Where's Uncle Zaf gone?" Wes asked curiously, while dragging Adam by his hand over to the queue for the burger stand.

Adam watched as Zaf walked out of sight before looking down at the fair haired clone of himself. "Don't ask son, don't ask."

* * *

Zaf walked slowly, taking in the lively atmosphere all around him as the ground emptied as people searched for sustenance, usually in the form of fried food and beer. He hadn't been lying to Adam, well not entirely, he did want to stretch his legs and if that offered him up the opportunity to do some covert spying work on Harry and his 'friend', well that was just killing two birds with one stone as far as he was concerned, He struggled to understand them and their relationship; if he liked someone, he asked them out and they either said yes or well yes. In Zaf's life, one thing he had never struggled with was attracting the ladies... though maintaining interest in them once he'd had a few dates with them, then that was another thing entirely.

So caught up was he in his thoughts of Harry, Ruth and his own love life, Zaf failed to spot the middle-aged man with his head down engrossed in the match programme and they walked straight into each other.

"Sorry mate, didn't see you there." Zaf steadied himself quickly and reached down to help up the older gentleman who was on his hands and knees on the floor in front of him. "You alright th..." The words were taken out of his mouth as he suddenly recognised the person he'd bowled over. "Malcolm! What the hell are you doing here?"

Malcolm looked around frantically and seeing Zaf was alone replied, "What am I doing here? What the devil are you doing in here? This is the members stand, you shouldn't have been able to enter this area unless you're a member or have one of these passes," he wiggled the lanyard around his neck in front of Zaf's face.

"Amazing what the old Security Services ID will get you into," Zaf said in a lowered voice. It was a trick he'd used many times, walk with confidence, show the ID and act like you had a specific and urgent need to be there. It had never failed him and had got him into the backstage of numerous concerts, not to mention queue jumping at some of London's biggest clubs. "Anyway, enough about me, what are you doing here?"

Malcolm shuffled, suddenly looking very uncomfortable, "well, I, um."

"I thought you were visiting your Great-Aunt in Yorkshire or Norfolk or wherever it was?"

"Lincolnshire," Malcolm ground out.

"That was it," Zaf smiled, "it's all the same to me once you get out of the M25."

"I'm sure your comments about the rest of this great land will be of great comfort to the people who live there, considering your job is to protect them ." Malcolm grumbled.

Zaf held his hands up, "woah, I'm only joking," he said with a smile. "It seems I can't do right for doing wrong today."

"Why, who else have you managed to upset?"

"Oh no one really. Adam's just got his knickers in a twist because he thinks I'm off to spy on Harry and Ruth so I can close my book on them."

Malcolm looked up sharply, "and are you? Is that why you entered this area so you could walk around unimpeded to their stand?"

"Ahh, so it's definitely Ruth that Harry brought with him, Adam wouldn't say.' Zaf beamed and clapped him on the top of his arm. "Cheers for that Malcolm."

Malcolm groaned as he realised he'd been tricked. "Yes, they are here together, but I'd also add that if Harry spots you, your days in Section D could well be short-lived and given his connections, if you went back to Six, then a posting to some distant hellhole could quickly become a reality."

Zaf gulped, "well it's just as well I'm not off to spy on them then isn't it," he said with an easy charm. He indicated around them, "I just fancied seeing how the other half lived. I've heard the food is much better in here than it is out there and I didn't fancy spending a fortune on something I'd really rather not be eating."

Malcolm nodded at this, not believing him for a second. "Well you can get your roast meat sandwich or gourmet pie and then head on back to Adam since you've now reached your destination," he said firmly.

"Hold on, anyone would think you were trying to get rid of me," Zaf replied lightly. "So why are you in here in the Members Pavilion, when I know for a fact that up until a few days ago you had tickets with Harry which suddenly you couldn't use because of a weekend trip to Lancashire."

"Lincolnshire," Malcolm bit out, knowing full well that Zaf was just trying to wind him up and get him to reveal something he didn't want to. His easy charm and his ability to disarm people was one of the reasons why Zaf was as good at his job as he was. "I found out yesterday that unfortunately my Great-Aunt had to cancel and as I'd already given my ticket away, I contacted an old friend and he managed to wangle me a pass into here."

"Bullshit," Zaf said in a laughing friendly tone, "you're a terrible liar Malcolm."

Malcolm sighed heavily, "Yes I know. I just felt guilty about what happened last time and thought if I could give them a slight push in the right direction, then they'd do the rest themselves."

"I'm not the only one who'll be heading for a distant hellhole if they find out about this." Zaf laughed, "in fact you're worse off than me. I haven't gone looking for them yet, while you've already managed to convince Ruth to spend a day at the cricket with him... "

"And neither of them are ever going to find out about this either are they Zaf." Malcolm said with raised eyebrows and a tone that clearly indicated that what he'd said was a statement rather than a question. "Because you're going to head back to your seat the way you came, and we're both going to completely forget all about seeing each other here today."

"And what if I don't forget?" Zaf asked cheekily.

"Then Harry will receive a report, ostensibly from the DG, about Officers misusing their identity cards for their own personal gain and this would inevitably lead to a clampdown on said Officers," Malcolm said calmly with a wide smile. "Are we both on the same page yet?"

Zaf laughed, "you've got me there Malcolm. If England play as well as you've played this. then the Ashes will be in the bag by tea-time!"

Malcolm chuckled, glad he'd been able to divert Zaf who he knew meant no harm, just a little mischief. "Well hopefully that's the case Zafar." He headed off back to the entrance to the Pavilion, "enjoy the rest of the game and don't mention to Adam that you've seen me."

"Mum's the word." Zaf replied with a cheery wave as mission aborted, he headed off back to his seat, but not before first stopping at one of the gourmet food trucks to get some decent food.

* * *

Oblivious to the actions of their colleagues on the other side of the Oval, Harry and Ruth were enjoyed a fine packed lunch courtesy of Marks and Spencer's fresh food selection which Ruth had plundered the previous evening.

"That was delicious Ruth, thank you." Harry said popping in the last mouthful of a porkpie,

"Better than chicken nuggets and chips?" Ruth asked wryly, she'd seen the selection of food stands on offer when she'd popped to the ladies earlier and hadn't been overly impressed with the selection.

"Much," he answered with a grin. "You don't go to watch sport for the food, it's all about the ambience..."

"And the beer..." Ruth finished off his sentence for him with a smile. It seemed most people around her were on their third or fourth already, but the atmosphere was cheerful and upbeat as the sun continued to shine, and so far there seemed to have been no drunken or loutish behaviour.

"And the beer," Harry repeated with a grin. Since their earlier awkward conversation about smiling of all things, they'd settled down and had spent the last couple of hours chatting about this and that and slowly getting to know each other slightly better. All of this was interspersed with comments on the game going on in front of them. He'd made her laugh by repeating the famous Test Match Special commentary about the legendary West Indian Bowler, Michael Holding and the English batsman, Peter Willey. _'The Bowler's Holding, the Batsman's Willey'_ so said Brian Johnston on the radio; and in turn she'd slowly opened up to him, recounting times she'd spent with her father as a child listening to the cricket on the radio, "though I never heard any double-entendres or innuendo" she'd laughed.

Now sitting next to her, Harry suddenly realised quite how much he'd enjoyed their day so far. He hadn't been spinning her a line when he'd described his ideal travel companion over their dinner out as someone with a gentle sense of humour who understood the need for quiet and Ruth fitted the brief perfectly. He looked over at her and smiled. "Are you enjoying it, the day I mean?"

Ruth nodded, she was actually having a much better time than she'd expected, the couple of drinks she'd had, had mellowed her mood and the time spent with Harry had flown by. "I am," she smiled at him, "I'm suddenly very glad Malcolm couldn't come."

"Me too," he added softly. He noticed a small smudge of mayonnaise at the corner of her lips and without thinking about it, moved his hand to softly wipe it away with his thumb. The movement brought their heads closer together and despite the fact that they were surrounded by thousands of people they suddenly only had eyes for each other. "Ruth..."

Whatever he was going to say or do was lost as the two teams walked back out onto the pitch for the afternoon session and the crowd rose as one to greet them. Their moment rudely interrupted as the back of their seats were knocked and Harry's voice was drowned out by a lone trumpeter.

TBC


	4. Chapter 4

Thanks once again to all the people who are going along with this story and particular thanks to those who have taken the time to review. It's always nice to read what parts are resonating with people and to realise that the subject line of cricket hasn't driven readers away in droves!

* * *

Harry made his way back down to the seats he and Ruth were occupying with multiple apologies. He'd popped back into the concourse area to replenish their drinking supplies and also to get a few moments in some much needed cooler shade, but was now making his way back to Ruth, which came with it's own set of difficulties. It was all very well packing in so many people, he thought to himself, but given he was juggling two plastic glasses of beer and a bottle of water, with a further bottle stuck precariously in his trouser pocket while also causing a mini Mexican wave as people stood along the line of seating to let him through, there was a lot to be said for watching the game from the comforts of your own home. That thought left his head as quickly as it had come, when he spied Ruth who was watching him make his way back towards her, a soft smile playing around her lips. Bugger watching the game at home, he was sat in close quarters with Ruth, watching a game he loved and for once, the notoriously fickle British weather had come to the party and the sun was still shining. All he needed now, was for the Aussies to lose another 6 wickets in quick succession, following the two they'd lost in the morning session and the 2 that had come so far in the afternoon session, and it really would go down as being one of the most perfect days of his life.

As he reached the safety of his seat he gave her a smile of relief, "I thought for one horrible moment back there, that this, "he indicated to the beers in his hand with a nod from his head, "was all going to end up over some unsuspecting persons head. That elderly gentleman at the end seemed determined to make me trip over, between his feet, his bag and his walking stick, it was like tiptoeing through a minefield."

Ruth laughed, "well I'm glad you managed to make it back in one piece," she went to go to help him out with the drinks in his hands, while he went to sit down at the same time before he stopped her.

"Sorry would you mind," Harry felt his face colour, it was only when he'd gone to sit down, that he remembered the other bottle of water that he'd jammed in his pocket, as it had been the only way to safely carry it. There was the chance that Ruth could have taken two of the drinks out of his hand, but that had a high risk of spillage due to the flimsiness of the glasses, without first getting them balanced on his knees, and he certainly wouldn't be able to do that, or sit, without the water coming out of his pocket.

"Mind what?"

"I've got a bottle of water in my pocket."

Ruth looked up at him, slightly bemused, "what about it?"

Harry felt his face colour further, this was all completely innocent, why did he suddenly feel like a character out of a _Carry On_ film. He cleared his throat and spoke in a low tone, though it appeared one else round them was listening. "I can't sit down with the water where it is and I can't get it out myself. I'm sorry about this, but would you mind giving me a hand with it," he groaned inwardly when he realised what he said, " I mean would you mind just giving it a quick tug and it'll come out," dear god, had he just said that, he rushed on "I mean..."

Ruth laughed softly as he got ever more flustered, while the people around them and particularly behind him started getting restless as he still hadn't sat down. She reached up and grasped the bottle neck and pulled it out of his pocket with the minimum of fuss, "I know what you meant Harry, don't look so worried."

"I felt like a first class cad there for a moment," he said ruefully, after sitting down and managing skilfully not to spill any of the drinks. He handed her a beer before taking a large gulp of his own, hoping against hope that his blush would disappear as quickly as it had come.

"Any excuse for you to get me to put my hand down your trousers," Ruth joked lightly, regretting the words almost as soon as they'd come out of her mouth. They'd been getting on so well and after only a few initial stumbles, most of their conversation had flowed rather well, this comment though looked like it'd set them back several years.

"They'll find any excuse they can for that!" Any response Harry was about to make to Ruth's comment was stymied as the lady sat in front of them, that had mistaken them for husband and wife earlier in the day, once again turned round and uninvited, joined their conversation. "He," she jerked her head towards her long suffering husband, who again seemed to have developed tunnel vision for the game going on in front of him as well as suffering the sudden onset of instant hearing loss, "he tries it on all the time, 'can you get the keys out of my pocket love', when we've come home from the shopping rather than putting the shopping bags down to get the keys out. They'll do anything to get a quick fumble," she said with a warm chuckle.

Ruth leapt to Harry's defence while he seemed momentarily lost for words, "I was just teasing him," she said quickly, "he didn't mean anything by it."

"That's what they all say lovey." The woman, turned around to face the game in front of her again, "don't let him fool you, you've obviously not been wed long, as he's obviously been around the traps a lot longer than you have," she said with a laugh.

Ruth went to speak again but was stopped by Harry grabbing her hand to attract her attention and shaking his head. He leaned in close to her and whispered softly in her ear, "leave it, just try and ignore her."

Ruth nodded and looked over at him again, he was still grasping her hand having seemingly not noticed and she realised that she liked the way it felt. "I was only teasing you Harry," she said softly.

He smiled back at her, she hadn't seemed to realise he was still holding her hand so he decided to keep it there and wait for her to pull away. "I know. I don't know what it is about us... about you" he added tentatively, "that makes me talk at times like an ineloquent fool."

She shifted her hand inside his so that their fingers were now laced together, " I think we both suffer from the same issue when it comes to that," she replied quietly.

* * *

"Another beer or do you fancy an ice-cream?" Zaf asked Adam, standing up and stretching his back during the mid afternoon drinks break that was taking place on the ground. England had managed to get two more Australian scalps so far during the session, and so far it was 50/50 as to who was ahead in the game.

"Can I have a beer as well?" Wes looked up excitedly, "and an ice-cream?"

Zaf chuckled, "you'll have to ask your dad."

Adam laughed, "You can either have a beer, or you can have a lemonade and an ice-cream, but unfortunately not a beer and an ice-cream," he joked.

Wes looked downcast for a second as if weighing up his options before choosing ice-cream and lemonade as Adam had known he would, not that he had any real choice in the matter, "can I come and help you get them?" he asked.

"Many hands make light work," was Zaf's fast response as he led Adam's son away from the field, making a quick pit stop at the Gents before joining the queues at the bar.

"Do you think Uncle Harry will be having ice-cream too?" Wes asked Zaf as he was handed a cornetto once Zaf had taken all the wrapping off it for him, along with 2 others for Zaf and Adam to eat that were still contained in all their packaging.

"I don't know," Zaf replied, "you'll have to ask him next time you see him." He picked up their drinks and started to make his back to their seats, "do you see him often?"

"Sometimes." Wes replied licking his ice-cream. "He takes me and dad to watch dog racing."

"And do you like that?" Zaf asked surprised, he'd known that Harry had spent a little time with Wes and Adam since Fiona's death, but couldn't for the life of him imagine him down at the dog track.

Wes nodded eagerly, "Yes, Uncle Harry is much better than Dad at picking who's going to win and he always gives me some of the money he wins so I can buy some sweets. He says I'm not to tell Dad, but I think he knows anyway."

"Well he won't hear anything about it from me," Zaf said conspiratorially as they found their seats again, Adam had disappeared, presumably for his own quick trip to the loo. "Next time you see Uncle Harry, you'll have to ask him if he's bought Ruth ice-cream as well when he's taken her out."

"Is Ruth Uncle Harry's girlfriend?"

"I don't know," Zaf tapped his nose with his finger, Malcolm may have stopped him doing his own snooping on the pair of them, but there was more than one way to skin a cat and he happened to have money on this particular cat; "but if you find out then you should let me know." He took the lemonade off Wes as he saw Adam approaching and much to Wes's delight, poured a small amount of his beer into it to make a very weak shandy, " but don't tell your dad." he added in a loud stage whisper.

"Tell me what?" Adam asked with a grin as he sat down, grabbing his rapidly melting ice-cream from where Wes was loosely holding it.

Wes was the picture of innocence as he answered, "nothing Dad."

Zaf winked at Adam over Wes's head, he'd known Adam had seen him mix Wes the shandy and was thinking that was what Wes was keeping quiet, but he also figured that Wes had the best chance out of any of them of finding out if Ruth really was 'Uncle Harry's' girlfriend.

* * *

Harry waved the programme he held in front of him, trying to create some semblance of a breeze. Thanks to the suntan lotion Ruth had brought along with her he wasn't going to burn, but the heat was increasing as the afternoon wore on and he was getting hotter and hotter. He'd reluctantly relinquished Ruth's hand as they'd had to stand to let someone through and he hadn't yet found the excuse he needed to take it again. Instead he found himself using said hand in an vain effort to keep cool. "I can't believe how hot it is," he said, pursing his lips, somehow Ruth seemed to be sitting in a different climatic zone to him and appeared remarkably cool and collected.

"The joys of the British summer," Ruth replied lightly, she was enjoying the rare feeling of sun on her skin and she always felt better about herself when she was a little tanned. "We should just be glad it's not raining."

The image of him and Ruth huddled together underneath an umbrella made Harry wish for a moment that it was raining and the cricket be damned, "hmmm."

She glanced over at him, he did look a little hot under the collar, he'd rolled his shirt sleeves up to his elbows and his shirt had more buttons open than she'd ever seen before showing a glimpse of the upper part of his chest. "You should have put shorts on instead of trousers," she said with a chuckle, "they might have been a little cooler."

"Shorts?" Harry quirked his eyebrow at her, "I don't think I own a pair... at least a pair that would still fit me."

"I suppose Savile Row don't tend to make shorts." she said with a cheeky smile.

"Haha, very droll," he replied. "I can't remember a time other than today when I last needed them... or wore them for that matter."

"You never wear them when you're in your garden or on holiday?"

"I never seem to have the time or inclination to spend time in my garden, and as for a holiday... what's one of those?" Harry joked.

"You need to make time for yourself Harry. You need to relax."

"That's what today is about," Harry stretched his arms out in front of him, "it does feel nice to have had a full day away from the Grid. I can't remember when that was last the case."

"You take most Sundays off don't you?" Ruth looked over at him, "I know you're on call one weekend in three and tend to go in most Saturdays even though you really shouldn't, but I thought you didn't go in on a Sunday unless we have a Code Red?"

Harry shrugged, "you're a fine one to speak, I know for a fact that you go in virtually every Saturday, even when we're quiet."

"It's a good time to catch-up on paperwork," Ruth mumbled, "and you're often there as well."

"Well maybe we should both spend more time away from the Grid," Harry said softly.

"When was your last full day off?" Ruth asked curiously, "before today I mean."

Harry cast his mind back, "that would be around 5 weeks ago. Catherine, my daughter, came back from her travels overseas and spent some time in Brighton. I met her in this little pub in a Sussex village about halfway between London and Brighton and we had lunch." He smiled fondly, "it was the quintessential English pub, complete with thatched roof and a log fire, which was fortunately lit as the weather was behaving very unseasonably at the time despite it being July!"

"That sounds lovely." Ruth murmured, "I can't remember the last time I got away from London for the day."

"It was." Harry looked across at her, wondering whether now was the right time to take the plunge again. He decided it was worth the risk, nothing ventured, nothing gained and all that. "If nothing urgent comes up in the week and it looks like it's going to be a quiet weekend, then maybe..." He took a deep breath, "perhaps you'd let me take you for lunch there, we could go for a walk afterwards, get in some country air."

"Lunch? Next weekend?"

"Yes, maybe next Sunday? To thank you for the delicious lunch you've provided for us today."

"It's a thank you lunch?" Ruth asked hesitantly.

"Yes... well, no. It's whatever you want it to be Ruth, I've enjoyed spending the day with you, and I'd like to do it again... if you'd like to of course?"

Ruth nodded with a small smile on her face as she looked down at her feet before answering, "that would be nice," she said.

Harry felt relief course through him, he'd wondered if maybe he was in danger of pushing her too far, "I'm sure it'll be very nice," he said with a warm smile, "good company, good food, what more could a man want from his day off?"

Ruth smiled at him and in response, slipped her hand back into his and gave it a gentle squeeze.

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

Thanks once again for all the kind reviews and comments on this story, they really are most appreciated. I'm now 5 chapters in and it's already much longer than I expected so I hope you enjoy the next part of their day at the cricket. One more chapter to go after this I think.

* * *

Harry and Ruth sat down as they settled back into their seats for the final session of the day, having each taken advantage of the tea-break to visit the facilities, and in Harry's case to get another beer for himself and a water for Ruth to quench their thirst. Their well meaning, but incredibly annoying neighbour, having heard their plans to tag-team out during the break in order that one of them stayed with their seats and their bag, made an offer to watch their stuff; but Harry hadn't got to the position he was in today without having an inbuilt mistrust of people, his present company excepted of course, and while he didn't believe it likely that she had some hidden criminal tendencies other than a penchant for sticking her nose into something that didn't concern her, he wasn't taking any chances and had politely declined her offer.

"Well England need to get five wickets in the next 2-3 hours or the Ashes will be heading back to Australia," Harry said despondently.

"I thought the game could go on until tomorrow?" Ruth asked. "Don't test matches usually last five days?"

Harry smiled wryly, "I thought you said you didn't know anything about cricket?"

"I don't think that I ever said that," she replied light-heartedly, "I know lots of random stuff about things, including cricket; it was more that I just didn't particularly like it."

He glanced over at her, "and has today changed your mind at all?"

Ruth was quiet for a couple of seconds before she answered his question. "I wouldn't say today has turned me into an aficionado of the game... but I have enjoyed today very much." She lowered her voice to a whisper, "even with all the uninvited comments coming in from the side-lines."

"I'm glad," Harry said, reaching over and squeezing her hand lightly, "so have I. And in answer to your original question, the game theoretically could go on into tomorrow, but given that Australia only need 143 runs to win, it's very likely that it'll finish this evening as long as the light stays good."

Ruth looked up at the still cloudless sky, the scorching heat of earlier in the day had dissipated somewhat and it now felt much more pleasant. "We've been lucky with the weather."

"Very, though I could have done with it being a bit cooler at times!"

"Ah yes, though that's partially your own fault?"

Harry looked at her questioningly, "And how do you come to that conclusion Miss Evershed?"

"I forget, was it the insistence that the whiteness of your legs would blind the bowlers during their run up," she teased, "or your discovery that Savile Row didn't make shorts!"

Harry smiled, "very funny, and I'll have you know that my legs aren't that white."

"Really?"

"Hmmm," Harry replied with a wink, "if you're good I might let you get a glimpse of them at some stage..."

Ruth suddenly felt flustered at his teasing and certainly hotter than she'd been a minute ago. She changed the subject away from Harry's legs quickly. "Is this the warmest you've ever had it while watching the cricket?"

Harry thought back, "no, that would be sometime ago. I was in Jamaica in the early 80's and saw the legendary West Indian team play a test there. It was against India I think."

"You were there on holiday?"

Harry paused for a moment, "No, family holidays at the time tended to be a week in Cornwall rather that the Caribbean... I was there for other reasons." He leant over and whispered in her ear, "I was with Six at the time, the cricket was just a nice distraction for the day." He pulled back, "stupidly though, I made the same mistake I would have made earlier today if it hadn't been for you."

Ruth looked at him puzzled, "what was that?"

"Sun burn," he said ruefully, "there were three of us that went and all three of us resembled lobsters the next day. The locals thought it was hilarious, the three British boys eating strawberry ice-cream and looking like strawberries ourselves. Fortunately we had a couple of days rest and the work we were there to do wasn't in Jamaica, otherwise remaining hidden in plain sight might have been a touch difficult!"

Ruth laughed, "is that the only time you've seen cricket outside of England?"

Harry nodded, "I'd love to do one of the big tours one day, go and watch the Ashes in Australia or follow the test series around in South Africa or New Zealand or Sri Lanka or...". He paused, "I expect I'd need a different travelling companion for that trip though, than the one I had in mind for the Grand Tour of Europe," he stated rather than asked, not expecting a response.

Ruth looked at her feet before answering softly, "I don't know, you might find that that person had recently picked up an appreciation of the game that they'd never had previously." She looked over at Harry and met his eye with a small, slightly self conscious smile. His only response was to mirror her expression and to once again reach over and squeeze her hand gently.

* * *

"GET IN!" Zaf and Adam roared in unison as the sixth Australian wicket fell. The crowd erupted as the dejected batsman made his way slowly off the field to the sound of cheering all around the Ground.

"That's more like it," Adam raised his voice in jubilation over the sound of the noise, "only four more to go!"

"I missed it!" A small voice between them piped up, "what happened?"

"Clean bowled," Zaf answered with a big grin, as the three of them sat down along with the rest of the crowd in unison. "He took his middle stump straight out of the ground," he tapped Wes's shoulder and pointed towards the big screen which usually displayed the scorecard, but which also replayed all the wickets and panned around the ground during the quieter moments. "Watch that screen, they'll replay it in a moment and you'll be able to see it in all its glory!"

The three of them gazed towards the screen as the replay was shown several times from different angles, a small cheer going up each time the wicket fell. Zaf and Adam's attention was drawn to the incoming and outgoing batsman crossing in the field as a smattering of applause rang around, while Wes absently clapped his hands as he continued to watch the big screen distractedly."Do you think we'll get them all out tonight Dad? he asked optimistically?"

Adam glanced down at this son, put an arm around his shoulders and hugged him to his side. "I hope so Wes."

Wes suddenly pointed at the screen again, "isn't that the man you work with?"

"Harry?" Adam looked up but couldn't see anyone, plus it was showing a completely different area of the ground from where he thought Harry was sat.

"No, the other one," Wes looked at his father, "the one that came to our house that night and got upset and shouted at Uncle Harry. Zaf was there too... and Ruth."

"Malcolm?" Adam queried, "and how do you know about that? You were supposed to be upstairs asleep?"

Wes looked up at his father innocently, "ummmm."

"Anyway it can't be Malcolm," Adam continued, "he's away for the weekend. He was supposed to be coming here today with Harry but had to cancel. You must be mistaken Wes."

"But it really looked like him." Wes insisted.

"Malcolm has one of those faces that looks like lots of people and the camera moves very quickly." Zaf jumped in quickly, "I once thought I saw Prince Charles at the football, but it just turned out to be a random bloke whose ears just happened to stick out a little bit."

"Well this looked like him," Wes grabbed his dad's arm. "Look," he said pointing, "they're playing it again. Won't he be excited if you tell him tomorrow that you saw him on the TV at the cricket."

Just to humour Wes, Adam turned to the screen again, "I'm sure you're mistaken Wes."

"There," Wes pointed excitedly as the camera panned round to show the batsman trudging despondently off the field.

"I really don't thi..." Adam suddenly sat back in his chair, "Bloody hell, I think you're right."

"See," Wes beamed proudly, "I told you it was him". He then looked at his father sternly, "but you shouldn't swear, it's naughty. Mum always said so."

"Sorry Wes," Adam looked slightly abashed at being admonished by his son, before turning towards Zaf. "What's Malcolm doing here? I thought he was up in Lincolnshire, Do you know anything about this."

"Me no, didn't have a clue." Zaf spoke quickly, he couldn't believe Malcolm had been spotted, what were the chances...

"You can ask him tomorrow when you tell him you saw him on the screen. "Do you think he'll have been on the proper telly as well?" Wes asked. Like most children, he couldn't think of anything more exciting that seeing himself on television.

"I don't think you should mention it to him?" Zaf interjected quickly.

"Why not? It's hardly a crime being spotted at the cricket."

"I just don't think he'd want to know he'd been seen," Zaf replied quickly, "that's all."

Adam looked over at him, "I don't know what you're getting at here Zaf. He was meant to be coming here with Harry, something else came up, he gave the ticket away and then his plans were cancelled and he got another ticket. It's hardly something to worry about."

"Who's worrying?"

"You seem to be and I don't know why." Adam narrowed his eyes at him, "what's going on Zaf, what aren't you telling me?"

Zaf shrugged his shoulders expansively, "Nothing. But what if his trip was never cancelled, what if it was never going to take place in the first place."

"Then why would he cancel in the first place?" Adam asked bemused.

Zaf raised his eyebrows at him, "and you do what for a job?"

"He works in computers," Wes piped up having listened to the conversation. "Do you think he gave the ticket to Ruth so she could go with Uncle Harry because she's his girlfriend?"

"Why do you think Ruth is Uncle Harry's girlfriend?" Adam asked curiously, he didn't think Wes had ever seen them together and he certainly hadn't spoken to him about it at any stage.

"Zaf said so earlier."

Zaf groaned as Adam looked over at him, "I didn't exactly say that Wes."

"So what exactly did you say Zaf?" Adam rubbed his chin, " and what part of leave them alone didn't you understand?"

"He asked me to ask Uncle Harry if Ruth was his girlfriend." Wes said cheerily with a smile, missing the overtones between the two men. His face fell suddenly and he said sheepishly, "whoops. I was meant to keep it a secret though. Sorry!"

"You asked my son to get information for you? Adam asked icily, "and then asked him to keep secrets for you?"

"It was only a laugh," Zaf smiled, "come on, I know you're dying to know about Harry and Ruth as well."

Adam ignored Zaf's comments and continued. "And how did you know Malcolm never had plans to go away in the first place."

"Ah well..."

"Ah well what?"

Zaf shrugged his shoulders, "I bumped into him randomly at lunchtime when I was getting some food. He swore me to secrecy."

"Much like you did with my son." Adam asked again with raised eyebrows and a cool tone.

"Look he'll kill me if he finds out I've told you all this."

Adam smiled sweetly at him, "and I'll kill you if I ever find out that Harry and Ruth have caught any wind of this... or your book... or anything else really. If you have any other plans to spy on them, I'd cancel them now."

"Oh come on, it's just a laugh." Zaf pleaded, "it's just something to lighten up the office."

"I hardly think Harry would find it a laugh if he found out."

"I think he'd be quite pleased actually." At Adam's questioning look he continued, "Malcolm doing what he did, has given him the chance to spend the day with Ruth. I think he'd be quite grateful."

"He might be with Malcolm, but I don't think he'd be best pleased to hear about either the book or you trying to use my son as an asset! Do you?"

Zaf gulped, "Well he won't find out."

Adam smiled darkly at him. "Oh I think he might very easily find out. If I hear one little whisper about them on the Grid, then you better get ready to start packing your bags for whichever destination Harry thinks most suitable."

"But..."

"Do I make myself clear."

"Message received loud and clear." He gave a mock salute, "Sir."

Adam ignored the sarcasm, "and as for what you asked Wes to do for you, then I'll be looking for you to..."

"Yessss," screamed Wes excitedly, as the crowd jumped noisily to their feet as one. "That's two wickets in two balls Dad!" He and the crowd around him drowned out the rest of Adam's sentence much to Zaf's relief and he took the chance in the general melee to make a quick exit and an escape to the drinks stand. He had a feeling he'd be buying Adam more than a few beers to get him back onside after today.

* * *

"So what does this mean," Ruth shouted in Harry's ear. After a rather quiet day with intermittent cheering when a wicket fell, the crowd had suddenly become very vocal and loud with thunderous cheering and clapping running round the stadium.

Leaning in towards Ruth to make himself heard, he explained, it's a hat trick ball, getting three wickets in three successive balls is very rare... plus if we get him out now, then we've only got two more left to get to win and they're still a hundred runs behind."

Ruth grinned at him, she'd enjoyed the day more than she ever thought she would, and to her surprise, had actually got caught up in the events on the field, finding them a distraction when she needed them from the man sat next to her. "Well lets hope he gets it then." She joined in the clapping as the English bowler went back to his mark and started his run up with the batsman completely surrounded by fielders.

The sound was deafening as he charged in and then suddenly the shout went round the Ground as thousands of people yelled in unison, "CATCH!" The batsman had gone to hit the ball out of the ground and had instead hit it straight up in the air, after seconds which felt much longer to the people watching, the ball was safely caught and both the bowler and the fielder were mobbed by their team mates.

"He did it!" Ruth shouted excitedly, jumping up and applauding loudly completely caught up in the moment. She turned to Harry and before she knew what was happening, or who made the first move, they were involved in a bear hug; though they certainly weren't alone in that, with most of the crowd hugging each other and slapping each other of the back in joy as well.

"Sorry," Harry pulled back slightly after several moments, with his arms still loosely around her. "I got carried away in all the excitement."

"Don't be. Sorry that is" They were still surrounded by people standing and cheering and so were hidden away from most people, "I can't think of any way nicer to celebrate," Ruth said softly.

"I quite agree," Harry murmured and before he could talk himself out of it. he lowered his head to hers and caught her lips in a short soft kiss.

"Well, apart from that." Ruth said seconds later, with a gentle smile.

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

We've finally (more or less) reached the end of this, there may potentially be a small epilogue but I haven't decided on that just yet, this chapter was a real struggle to write so I shall have to see. Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed this, it is much appreciated, particularly as it ballooned from a two chapter story into something three times the size! And apologies must go to R4ven and Transmission64, I couldn't have Harry unhappy with the result could I!

This continues on straight from the last chapter

* * *

"Sorry," Harry pulled back slightly, despite the fact that Ruth was still smiling softly at him, "I shouldn't have done that, I shouldn't have kissed you."

"Oh," Ruth said slowly, "I thought it was rather nice but..."

"It was," Harry sighed as they settled back down into their seats as the crowd slowly started to come back down to earth after the excitement of the hat trick, "but..."

Ruth tried to mask the hurt on her face, "but now you're regretting it."

"No, it's not that;" Harry shifted in his seat, "it's not that at all," he reiterated firmly after seeing the look of doubt starting to creep in onto her face.

"Then what is it?"

Harry glanced around them, it was hardly the time or the place to be having this conversation but it really didn't look like he had much choice; why, he mused to himself, hadn't he just kept his mouth closed, or better yet, leaned in for another kiss. "You said, not that long ago, that you didn't think you could cope with us as a couple …" he started hesitantly.

"That's not quite what I said."

"Well words to that effect," Harry continued. "I'm your boss Ruth, there's no way we can escape that fact, and I've just kissed you, despite you telling me that you didn't want to continue... or even start a relationship with me."

Ruth let out a short laugh, more out of relief than anything else. "And you were afraid that I was going to hit you with a sexual harassment case first thing tomorrow morning, or something similar?" she said with a wry smile.

Harry looked aghast, "What, no... that never even crossed my mind."

Ruth took hold of his hand and squeezed it, "nor mine," she said lightly. "But the look on your face just then was something to behold."

"Well I'm glad I'm keeping you amused, Miss Evershed," he answered drolly, "if nothing else."

"So," Ruth carried on, "what you're trying to tell me, isn't that you're sorry you kissed me, but more that you're sorry that you didn't check first?"

Harry nodded, "that's not quite how I would have put it... but yes."

"Is that normal practice with you?" Ruth teased, "check first or apologise if it happens on the spur of the moment?"

"Wha," Harry started to speak, before looking at her face and realising she was winding him up a little. "No, not usually, but you're a particularly special case."

Ruth laughed, more at the look on his face than what he was saying. "I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or something else," she joked.

"I'd go with compliment," he smiled. "Look this is probably one of the worst places we could be having this conversation..."

She winked at him "And it's stopping you watching the game."

"That's not what I meant."

"I know. Well why don't we leave it then for now," Ruth said softly, "we can talk more about our situation, or whatever you want to call it, next week when you take me for Sunday Lunch in that pub you mentioned."

"You're still keen, I thought I might have frightened you off again?"

Ruth looked puzzled, "why would you think that?" she asked. She moved her head closer to his and spoke softly, "I know we have to talk about this, about what we both want and how it's going to affect us working together, but I'm not in the habit of spending days out with my boss and holding his hand for the fun of it."

"Holding hands," Harry looked down to where their fingers were linked together and resting on his thigh, "I don't think I've approached a relationship like this since I was a teenager." There was no malice in his voice, just an acceptance of facts.

"You're my Boss Harry, it has to be different. I'm not just thinking of us here."

Harry squeezed her hand in agreement. "You said us just being friends was what you wanted, even earlier today."

"I know what I said, I don't know who I was trying to convince, myself or you."

"So does that mean..."

"I don't know entirely what it means Harry, but it does mean we have to approach this slowly, more carefully that we would if we weren't working together." Ruth spoke softly, "I also don't like the idea of people talking about me, or you, behind my back. They're my peers and I'm worried about how my relationship would change with them as it changes with you. But," she took and deep breath and continued, "today has been one of the nicest days I've had in a long time, and I rather think that that's down to the company than the choice of destination and that's why I think we should give us a chance."

Harry caught her eye and smiled, so much for saving the talking for next Sunday, he valiantly tried to change the subject. "I thought you were enjoying it, the cricket that is."

"I am... but I wouldn't have been persuaded to come here with anyone else but you."

Harry's eyes lit up with pleasure, "I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me."

Ruth coloured slightly but didn't reply to his comment. "I'd like to see where this goes," she indicated between the two of them, "where we go, but I don't want to do it with any pressure."

Harry nodded, it seemed they were having the chat now, still it was better than being left in limbo for a week and Ruth taking flight again. "Okay then, but what does that actually mean?"

"I don't know what it means... apart from that I'd like it to be kept between the two of us for the time being..." She looked at him and raised her eyebrows, "and I don't want you to say sorry to me each time you kiss me!"

He smiled gently before leaning over and kissing he softly on the cheek, "no more apologising, and no one will hear a word about it from me."

"Thank you. I know it sounds a bit silly, but I'd rather not be the topic of constant speculation each time we talk on the grid or go out together. And I certainly don't want to be known as the person who's scrumping the boss." Ruth finished the end of her speech and suddenly went a fetching shade of beetroot as she realised what she'd said.

"Scrumping?" Harry asked softly, lifting his left eyebrow in a comical fashion, his face also a touch redder than it had been a moment ago.

"You know what I mean," Ruth mumbled quietly, while inwardly berating herself for letting her tongue run away with itself.

Fortunately Harry chose to let that topic slide, "I do," he said squeezing her hand in confirmation. "Ahh," he cleared his throat, "you do realise Adam and Zaf are here today?"

Ruth nodded, "Yes, Malcolm told me, they've brought Wes with them I believe?"

He tilted his head in the affirmative, "Yes, well, I bumped into them earlier, Adam and Wes that is."

"And?"

"Adam indicated that he knew that you may be joining me here today... and obviously Malcolm knows as he gave you the ticket."

Ruth shrugged her shoulders, "that can't be helped," she responded, "if either of them asks me tomorrow, I'll just say it was uneventful and leave it at that, I can't imagine Malcolm will push anything."

Harry nodded, "and if Adam says anything, which I don't think he will, I'll just tell him that you were as knowledgeable about the cricket as he is about the dogs, and for anything else he can mind his own beeswax!"

* * *

Malcolm looked at the phone in his hand and groaned, three texts were sat waiting to be read and the subject of all three looked to be the same; his one saving grace, was that none had come from either Harry or Ruth's phone. The ones from Zaf and Adam were on the same topic, _'just seen you on the big screen, thought you were up in Lincs? You might want to move away from the camera's for any further wickets – chat tomorrow'_ from Adam, while Zaf's was straight to the point, _'don't blame me tomorrow if Harry and Ruth know you were at the cricket, blame it on you getting your 10 seconds of fame on the big screen.'_ Fortunately the third was much more agreeable, _'Malcolm old chap, hadn't realised you were here today. Fancy a swift pint after we've seen off the colonials? Rose and Crown 5 mins from the Ground.'_ It was from an old friend he hadn't seen for a couple of years and after deleting the first two, he replied in the affirmative to the third; it would be good to see John again and it would also take his mind off worrying whether he'd been caught out in his lie by Harry and Ruth...

* * *

"One more wicket to go," Wes beamed as the ninth Australian batsman walked off to a loud chorus of cheering and singing.

Adam glanced down at his watch while smiling at his sons enthusiasm, "well they've got 30 more minutes to get him, or the game will be going into tomorrow."

"Do you really think we're going to win now?"

Adam nodded and clapped his hand on Wes' shoulder. "Even I think we can't lose from here, the Australians have to get too many runs and they don't have enough wickets left, it'd take a miracle to win from here, I just hope we get to see them lift the trophy tonight."

"So do I," Wes spoke excitedly as his father turned to answer a question asked by the man sitting next to him. He looked up as Zaf edged his way back down the line towards them manhandling two beers and a coke, "Zaf, where have you been? You missed all the wickets, we've nearly won the Ashes!"

"I know Wes, I saw them on the TV," he answered, passing the beer over to Adam in an unspoken act of apology following their earlier disagreement. "At least I'll hopefully get to see the most important one," he indicated towards the field with his head while taking a sip of his beer. It appeared Adam had accepted his apology by proxy of beer, but he'd made his mind up while skulking downstairs, that the names Harry and Ruth wouldn't be spoken in tandem by himself while in the vicinity of Malcolm or Adam in the near future.

Wes leaned over and spoke quietly to Zaf while Adam was distracted by his neighbour on the other side again, "I'm sorry I told Dad about what you asked me and got you into trouble."

Zaf ruffled his hair, "you've got nothing too be sorry for mate, I shouldn't have asked you in the first place."

Wes nodded seriously as if thinking things over, "Dad was a bit cross about it all."

"I know Wes, I know."

"He's like that with me when I don't tidy my room." He leaned over and spoke softly, "so when I do ask Uncle Harry if Ruth is his girlfriend, I promise I'll keep it really quiet and just tell you what he says," he said, with a big cheeky grin on his face. "I won't tell Dad anything."

Zaf laughed out loud, although Wes was like a clone of Adam looks wise; from a personality perspective, there was definitely the cheek and sense of mischievousness of Fiona shining straight through him.

* * *

"HOWZAT!" came the roar of the crowd and the eleven English players on the field, as the last remaining batsman was hit plum in front on his pads with the ball and given out LBW.

Once again the crowd, including Harry and Ruth, had jumped up in excitement along with the players, and as the umpire raised his right hand to give the final Australian batsman out, pandemonium broke out both on and off the field with the players hugging and backslapping each other and in Harry and Ruth's case, hugging and another gentle kiss to celebrate the win. "I won't apologise this time," Harry said with a grin, as he pulled back and applauded the players, as after shaking hands with the Australian team, they turned round and applauded the crowd, taking in a quick lap of honour before the presentation ceremony.

"Are we staying to watch?" Ruth asked, as around them some members of the crowd slowly stood to pack their belongs up and head home once the initial excitement and cheering had died down.

Harry nodded, "if you'd like to? It's the first time I've ever seen the Ashes being lifted."

"Well then we're definitely staying," Ruth said, leaning over and kissing his cheek quickly.

"Well its been lovely meeting and chatting to you both!" Harry and Ruth were both brought out of their little bubble by the lady who had been sitting in front of them once again, "we've got to head off now as some cheapskate," she nodded her head towards her husband, "bought train tickets that have to be used at a certain time, rather than spending a couple more quid and getting open tickets."

"That's a shame," Ruth said neutrally, while the husband in question nodded at them both, in pity of solidarity Harry wasn't quite sure, before starting to edge his way out towards the exit.

His wife didn't seem to have the same hurry to leave and carried on talking, "you know, I could've sworn at the beginning of the day that you two were wed, you just had that look about you."

Harry looked bemused, "Look?" he asked.

She ignored him and continued, "but listening to you all day and finding out you've just starting seeing each other, well, that's just lovely..."

"Listening to us?" this time he spoke with a little more steel in his voice.

Again Harry's comment was ignored, "he hasn't let you buy a drink all day has he love?" Ruth shook her head, completely nonplussed as the lady finally looked like she was about to leave, "well then, it looks like you've got yourself a winner there then love." She pointed her finger towards her quickly departing husband, "three times he made me go to the bar and not a word of thanks from him." She shook her head, "keep hold of this one, he's a charmer."

Ruth nodded this time as she felt the gurgle of a giggle threaten to rise from her throat, she could feel Harry's tension from her hand resting on his thigh, and knew that he was worried about how she was going to react to the situation.

"Bye then," Harry said curtly, "lovely meeting you." The sarcasm was laced through his tone and Ruth winced as she heard it.

Fortunately this wasn't picked up on by the oblivious lady, "and you lovey, and make sure you treat her well, at your age this could be your last roll of the dice." With that and a cheery wave she was off leaving Harry spluttering in her wake.

"At my age, she must have been 10 years older than me and not a day less!"

Ruth finally let go of the laugh she was keeping in and once she started she couldn't stop, "Oh Harry, your face then, I thought you were going to explode at her at one point."

Harry rubbed his hand down his face, "I can't believe she's spent the whole day listening to us."

"Well at last we weren't discussing assassinating people at any stage or various terrorist cells," Ruth said softly so she couldn't be heard.

"I should get Malcolm to put a trace on her," Harry said jokingly, "we could recruit her to go into hostile situations and get information out."

Ruth laughed, "like the rogue elements of the W.I?"

"You're not bothered too much by it all then?"

Ruth shook her head, "I felt sorry for her actually. I know she was quite cutting about her husband, but other than questions about food and drink they didn't seem speak to each other all day."

"Well it'll be food at the top of my list once we've got out of here and I've taken you home." Harry patted his stomach, "lunchtime was a long time ago!"

"You don't have to take me home Harry."

"I know, but I'd like to. We can get a taxi and I'll drop you off on the way to mine."

"It's hardly on the way," Ruth said with an amused look on her face.

"It is... kind of," Harry's eyes twinkled, "in a bit of a round and about way; unless you'd rather make your own way home? But it's nearly 6.30 now and it'll be 7.00 before we're out of here."

"No, that would be nice." Ruth hesitated a moment, "you know, there's a good Indian on the corner of my street, and since we're both going to be going home and won't have time to cook, maybe we could have an Indian together at mine?" She looked at him shyly when he didn't say anything, "what do you think?"

"I think it sounds like the perfect way to round off a perfect day." Harry answered with a grin, before once again leaning towards her and kissing her as cheers again rang out around the ground as the England team were presented with, and held aloft the Ashes trophy in triumph.

THE END


	7. Epilogue

This was supposed to be posted over the weekend but life got in the way, it was also only supposed to be short, but it seems I can't do short chapters, even if it's just an epilogue! Once again, thank you for all your support on this story, particularly to those who take the time out to review. Now this really is the end of this story and I hope you enjoy.

* * *

Ruth sat at her desk early Monday morning ostensibly already caught up in the days work. Her mind however was having difficulty focusing on prioritising the terror threats that had come in from GCHQ overnight and instead kept wandering back to the day she'd spent with Harry yesterday. The cricket had been followed by a taxi ride back to her house where she'd opened a bottle of wine while Harry had headed off to pick up the Indian takeaway. They'd spent the evening chatting away, taking care to steer clear of any talk of their relationship and instead had spent it getting to know each other slightly better. Harry had left just before ten and they'd shared a number of lingering kisses before being rudely interrupted by the taxi Harry had called, beeping its horn loudly to announce its arrival. She smiled softly to herself, before her thoughts were disturbed.

"You're looking particularly well this morning," Jo said, as she made her way over to Ruth's desk.

Ruth looked up slightly bemused, "sorry?"

Jo waved her hand around her face, "you caught the sun yesterday, you're glowing. Did you do something nice yesterday with your day off?"

Ruth hesitated, caught slightly off-guard by Jo's line of questioning, but decided to stick as close to the truth as she could. "I was out in the sun most of the day," she began hesitantly, "I tend to go brown quite easily."

"Nice," Jo grinned kindly, "what did you get up to, anything nice?"

Ruth focused intently on her desk, why today of all days? Jo's questions about her weekend usually lasted long enough that Ruth could say 'not much' when she asked her what she'd been up to, before she launched into describing her much busier day off. "I er, I had a picnic with a friend."

"Ooh, very nice," Jo smiled warmly, "a male friend?"

"I... I." Ruth looked down at her keyboard, furiously trying to stop the blush she felt rising. Jo couldn't know, there's no way she could know she'd spent the day with Harry.

"Oh don't mind me, I'm just teasing. I'd ask if it was anyone we know, but since the majority of people we work with seemed to have spent their day off watching paint dry."

Ruth looked confused, "paint dry?" she asked. The blush now seemingly having passed, she looked up at Jo.

Jo laughed, "sorry, it's better known as the cricket," she perched herself on the edge of Ruth's desk, "are you a fan?"

"Well...I."

"Hate the game myself," Jo continued on, "my brother used to play and half our weekends seemed to be spent ferrying him around to games and then huddling in draughty old pavilions trying to avoid the great British summer."

"Hmmm." Ruth murmured uncommittedly, wishing Jo would disappear back to her own desk or at least change the subject to something easier and less fraught, such as terrorists and the 100 different ways to build a bomb.

"Sorry, sorry, listen to me droning on," Jo made a face quickly, "it's just that Adam and Zaf were at the cricket yesterday and I think Harry and Malcolm were going too," she glanced down quickly to see if there was any reaction from Ruth.

"Oh, I don't know, sorry," Ruth smiled blandly up at her, "my knowledge of cricket is pretty limited, as is my knowledge of what people were doing yesterday. How was your Sunday?"

"Blissful.. well the afternoon was anyway, I was at work yesterday morning."

"That's a shame."

Jo shrugged, "it was my turn to cover the shift, first time I've been in on a Sunday morning though and Harry hasn't been here," she smiled broadly, "it felt a bit like it was at school and the teacher was away for the day and we had a supply teacher in who let us do what we wanted."

"He's not that bad," the words were out of her mouth defending Harry before she could stop them.

"Oh I know, he's a good boss most of the time." Jo leaned forward, "it's just that I think he lives here at times. He's here before I get here and he's here when I go home."

"His job is all consuming Jo, I think anyone in that position would work his hours."

"And he's always so formally dressed," Jo continued as if Ruth hadn't said anything, "even on a Sunday when he's just doing paperwork and has no meetings he still wears a tie."

"Well he can hardly just turn up in jeans and a tee-shirt!" Ruth replied defensively.

"I suppose so," Jo spoke as if she'd only just heard her. She gave a broad smile and a wink, "I wouldn't be surprised if he goes to bed in his suit and tie just in case," she joked.

"Well I wouldn't know," once again the words were out before she could think about what she was saying and Ruth grimaced to herself.

"Oh, that's not what I meant Ruth," she looked apologetic, "sorry, I know that you two aren't …. you know... "

"It's fine," Ruth fumbled in her desk drawer hoping Jo would get the hint and leave, "honestly, Jo, please..." 'the just leave it' was implied but not spoken.

Jo went quiet, casting her mind round for a way to apologise. She'd forgotten Ruth was quite so tetchy when it came to the subject of Harry, she really couldn't see what she saw in him, but given that Harry was a couple of years older than her parents, she reasoned that that was probably a very good thing. She continued slowly, "well I was lucky enough to get the flat to myself all afternoon and spent a very enjoyable time catching up on some sleep and watching DVD's without Zaf badgering me."

Ruth sat up in her chair, slowly collecting the files she'd need for that mornings briefing, "that's nice."

"It was," she winked at Ruth again, "though it would have been even nicer to be out on a picnic with a mystery man," with that, she stood up and made her way over to the meeting room leaving Ruth slumped at her desk with her face in her hands, wishing that all her colleagues put as much effort into interrogating criminals as they did interrogating her.

* * *

Adam looked around the office, it had been a quiet day so far. Harry was out at back to back meetings at Whitehall and hadn't yet made it into the office that day. He glanced over at where Ruth sat, her head buried in numerous files that were balanced haphazardly all over her desk. She was looking happy he was pleased to see and the small smile she'd been wearing when she first came in that morning was still visible on her face, despite the grilling he'd seen Jo giving her earlier before the meeting. She and Zaf were obviously flatmates made in heaven, given their fondness for gossiping about their colleagues; despite his warnings to Zaf yesterday, he'd already been directing jokey comments to Ruth about _'sticky wickets_ ', ' _bowling a maiden over_ ' and _'balls just getting an inside edge._ ' So far Ruth hadn't reacted but he decided to give her a respite as he saw Zaf making his way over to her once again.

"Ruth, fancy a coffee?" he called out across the office.

She looked up at him, "I'm fine thanks," she said with a shy smile, "I've just made myself one in the kitchen."

"I meant a proper coffee," he made his way over to her desk just as Zaf reached it, "not that muck that comes from the kitchen."

"That sounds lovely, but," she indicated towards all the files on her desk, "I can't leave these. Sorry."

Adam smiled broadly, "no matter, Zaf was just going to pop out and get you one," he looked over at his colleague, "weren't you Zaf? His treat I believe."

"I err." Zaf caught Adam's eye and realised his light teasing of Ruth that morning hadn't gone unnoticed, "yes, my treat."

Ruth looked between the two of them suspiciously, "what's going on?"

"Nothing." Adam pulled a chair over to the other side of her desk, "he's also going to get me one, and I'm sure Malcolm and Ros would appreciate one as well," he indicated over to where Malcolm sat monitoring three computers simultaneously while Ros was in the depths of a phone call with one of the Home Secretary's Private Secretary's.

"And how am I supposed to carry them all?" Zaf asked wearily, deciding in future that teasing Ruth was off limits as his bank balance couldn't stand shouting the whole team coffee's each day.

"You're a spy, you can figure it out." Adam nodded towards Jo who was heading towards them, "in this case though, your partner in crime can help you out."

"Help you out with what?" Jo asked curiously.

Adam grinned broadly. "Zaf has just offered to buy coffee's for everyone, given that it's 11.00am and we could all do with a caffeine hit, and you're going to help him carry them."

Jo looked downcast. "But it's pouring down outside."

"Well put a coat on then," Adam glanced between the two of them. "You won't melt!"

"But.."

"No but's. And it's a latte for me and for you Ruth?"

"A cappuccino please."

Zaf sighed and made his way to the door collecting orders as he went, closely followed by Jo who was looking slightly bemused by the turn of events.

Adam waited until they'd exited the pods before he spoke, checking carefully that he couldn't be overheard. "They mean well you know."

"What?"

"Zaf and Jo. They don't mean to cause you any hassle with their teasing, they just see things in a different way."

Ruth pondered on how to answer him, it was obvious that he knew something and it was equally obvious that he was trying to protect her. Not wanting to give anything further away she went for the noncommittal approach. "Thank you."

He pushed his chair back to stand and smiled at her, "No problem." He leaned forward and whispered confidentially, "in all honesty, if I'd heard him making another bad cricket related pun then I'd have probably hit him for six myself... plus it means we all get a decent cup of coffee for once which is a result in itself." With that, he made his way back to his own desk tunelessly whistling _Dreadlock Holiday_.

* * *

Malcolm knocked on the door to Harry's office clutching the paperwork he'd accumulated over the day which now needed signing. It was pushing eight o'clock and the majority of people had already left for home with just Ruth and a couple of other Analysts still sat at their desks working. Harry however was just making his first appearance on the Grid after a day of lengthy meetings and he held his hand out wearily for the files as Malcolm handed them over. "Good day?"

"Long day," Harry grumbled, scrawling his signature after giving the contents of the document a cursory glance over. "How about here. Anything untoward happen that I haven't heard about?" He looked up and held Malcolm's gaze.

Malcolm met it and shook his head, "nothing, it's been mercifully quiet."

"And how was your trip over the weekend? To... Lincoln wasn't it?"

Malcolm swallowed, "North Lincolnshire, actually, and it was very nice." He put out his hand to take the file back off Harry, but Harry kept a vice like grip on it while continuing to look him in the eye.

"And your mother, she enjoyed it?"

"Yes," Malcolm nodded, "had a lovely time."

"It's a curious thing really," Harry kept hold of the file which was now being held by the two of them and smiled benignly, "I was watching the cricket highlights last night after I got home..."

Malcolm gulped nervously, "Oh?"

"I like to watch them, see the wickets in close up so to speak. Now imagine my surprise when I notice what must be your identical twin brother sitting about three rows back from the boundary as two of the Australian batsman cross."

"Ah, well, yes.." Malcolm cleared his throat, "I can expla..."

Harry continued to speak in the same soft firm tone that had an underlying edge of steel, "and I thought to myself, that can't be Malcolm, he's up North for the weekend, and even if he wasn't, he's a spy and wouldn't let himself be caught out in a lie quite so easily would he?"

"Well, it's a funny story actu..."

"That was a rhetorical question Malcolm." Harry finally let go of the file he was holding and Malcolm jerked back as the pressure released. "Please don't do anything like that again, do I make myself clear?"

Malcolm nodded, "Yes Harry."

Harry pursed his lips, "you can probably be quite thankful, that much as Ruth appeared to enjoy the cricket yesterday, she's not quite yet a rabid enough fan to watch the highlights or see footage on the news... but if she were ever to see it, then she would feel like she had been played for a fool... though I hope that's not what you intended."

"It wasn't!" Malcolm started to back out towards the door hoping to make a quick escape. "I wouldn't do anything deliberately to hurt Ruth, she's a friend as well as a colleague." He took a deep breath, "apologies Harry, I just wanted to make up for putting my foot in it the last time."

Harry nodded accepting the apology for what it was, and called out just as Malcolm disappeared through the doorway, "Oh and Malcolm...,"

He popped his head back through the opening, "yes Harry?"

A glimmer of a smile was on Harry's lips, "Thank you..." Malcolm smiled briefly and nodded at him knowing he'd got away with meddling this time. Harry waited until Malcolm had shut the door behind him before glancing over towards Ruth desk. She looked up and caught him looking at her and they both smiled, slightly self consciously, each caught out looking at the other. Harry looked down at his desk and sighed, he had at least another hour of work to do, but he made the decision then and there, to offer her a lift home when she looked like she was ready for leaving, whenever that was...

THE END – Definitely this time.

A/N - Dreadlock Holiday by 10CC has the famous line in it of "I don't like cricket, oh no, I love it."


End file.
